One problem I face all too often is dropping a pen or accidentally gliding my hand across a drawing too quickly only to end up drawing a line I never intended. I get so aggrivated and usually end up drawing something else in that spot to ‘hide’ the mistake.

Unfortunately, one of these mishaps occurred with a large drawing that I had mostly finished and ready to frame. I obviously didn’t want to add anything to it since it was complete, so I set out to experiment and ‘erase’ the ink as best as I could. I knew I was taking a big risk by doing it, worst case scenario I end up making a small spot a giant blob… but I had a couple of ideas.

Ink spots and paper scarring from the attempted removal

On thicker, more durable papers, I’ve tried sandpaper at a very high grit gently rubbing away the spot. This works but usually ends up with a little pot-hole in the page. If light hits it, it creates a slight shadow. I then thought of using an x-acto blade to do the same thing, gently sliding it back and forth over the paper to grind away the ink. The benefit to this is that it’s ultimately precise. Instead of a pad of sandpaper, the blade can remove small pinpoint areas without leaving any grinding or tearing marks.

Holding the blade flush to the paper to buff out the marks

The trick was to hold it almost flat against the page, like you would if you wanted to cut the paper, but instead of pulling the blade, I pressed down slightly and then wiggled back and forth, rotating the paper to create a nice blended removal. It worked! Some extremely unsightly spots were instantly removed and I was pretty impressed. I thought I was just going to have to live with the mistake and hope no one would focus too much on it, but not anymore!

Almost no visible marks from the accidental ink spots and slightly less paper scarring

The downfall of this technique is that it will most likely only work on thicker papers, and since I use copy paper most of the time, it’s not the best solution. However, it’s definitely worth some experimenting!